CHAPTEK XIV. 



MESOPHYTE SOCIETIES. 



161. General characters, — ilesophytes make up tiie com- 

 mon vegetation of temperate regions, the vegetation most 

 commonly met and studied. The conditions of moisture 

 are mediu.m, precipitation is in general evenly distributed, 

 and the soil is rich in humus. The conditions are not ex- 

 treme, and therefore special adaj^tations, such as are neces- 

 sary for xerophytc or hydrophyte conditions, do not appear. 

 This may be regarded as the normal plant condition. It 

 is certainly the arable condition, and most adapted to the 

 plants which men seek to cultivate. When for purposes 

 of cultivation xerophyte areas are irrigated, or hydrophyte 

 areas are drained, it is simply to bring them into mesophy te 

 conditions. 



In looking over a niesophyte area and contrasting it 

 with a xerophyte area, one of the first things evident is that 

 the former is far richer in leaf forms. It is in the meso- 

 phyte conditions that foliage leaves show their remarkable 

 diversity. In hydrophyte and xerophyte areas they are apt 

 to be more or less monotonous in form. jVnother contrast 

 is foimd in the dense growth over mesoi)hyte areas, much 

 more so than in xerophyte regions, and even more dense 

 than in liydroiDhyte areas. 



Among the niesophyte societies must be included not 

 merely the natural ones, but those new societies which 

 have been formed under the influence of man, and which 

 do not appear among xerophyte and hydrophyte societies. 



